Laser lights switch-on a major turn-off

10:00am Saturday 2nd June 2012 in Local News Photograph of the Author By Joanna Davis

The lights on display The lights on display

CROWDS left Weymouth’s laser lights launch saying the project was an ‘embarrassment to the town’.

The seafront was full of hundreds of people who were keen to catch a first glimpse of the artwork at its official launch.

Despite a minor glitch with the PA system, the green lasers were turned on to the soundtrack of ‘Teardrops’ by Massive Attack.

Weymouth and Portland Mayor Margaret Leicester launched the lights, the final part of a £2.5million seafront regeneration programme.

The Veils of Light project has been funded by the Arts Council and other external funding.

Mrs Leicester told the crowds: “This is something new and very innovative and we are the first seaside resort to have it.”

The lights are described as ‘an artist-led scheme’ and consist of seven 16 metre high columns.

They begin half an hour after sunset and will go on and off every six minutes through the evening, with a different pattern of lights each time.

They will stay on until midnight in winter and 1am in summer.

Residents and visitors told the Echo that the lights, which replace the string of traditional ‘fairy lights’ along the promenade, were ‘disgusting and appalling’.

Former Weymouth resident Pauline Stevens, of Tennessee, had flown from the US to see the laser launch.

She said: “This is a total embarrassment.”

Laurel Salthouse, 68, of Weymouth, said: “I’m distinctly underwhelmed. An awful lot of money has been spent on this. It doesn’t seem to have a distinctive purpose. The fairy lights we had before were very attractive and gave the outline of the bay.”

Mandy Cox, 53, of Weymouth, said: “I think the lasers are disgusting. It’s a waste of money that could have been spent on better things.”

Jeffrey Lancaster, of Weymouth, said: “I think the council need people who haven’t taken their Christmas lights down to donate them. The only decent flashing lights I saw tonight were on an ambulance.”

Laurence Stone, 39, of Weymouth, said: “The lights are different. I was looking forward to the launch.

“I think people will come to Weymouth to see them.”

Photographer Mark Probin, of Weymouth, said: “The jury’s still out because it will be interesting to see what they look like in different weather conditions.

“The pillars are great and you can get some fantastic photos of them on the side of the bay by the Pavilion.”

Tony Easton, of Preston, said: “Literally nobody was impressed by the display.”

It's art, says 2012 boss

SIMON Williams, head of Weymouth and Portland 2012 operations, said the Veils of Light project was ‘an artistic installation, not a laser light show.’ Mr Williams, right, said: “I don’t know what people were expecting. It needs to be dark for the lights to work best.

“It will be different in different weather conditions – people need to look at it over a period of time in different conditions and different locations to experience it fully.

“People need to spend some time looking at it. Someone said to me ‘my friend looked out the window and said ‘is that it?’ “It’s about spending time there. It’s an artistic installation, not a laser light show.”

Comments(36)

annotator1 says...
10:28am Sat 2 Jun 12

Yes it is and we are the only town stupid enough to have this pathetic light show all in the name of 'art'.
The old fashioned light string and Georgian stands suited this town and the running expense is not a reason for having them as LED light bulbs that draw 1/20th of the power are available, in quantity, very cheaply indeed.
I for one do not entertain the 'art'.

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Techie says...
10:30am Sat 2 Jun 12

For "minor glitch" read "completely inaudible"! However for whatever reason the lasers looked much better and brighter last night than they did on Thursday.

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xmonkeymanx says...
10:31am Sat 2 Jun 12

why on earth was it advertised and why were the peopke of weymouth and portland told that it was a laser show? they could have at least been different colours. still not heard from anyone who likes them yet apart from the people wessexfm paid to say they were.

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paddyash says...
11:57am Sat 2 Jun 12

what a waste of money yet again, i loved the traditional fairy lights, i miss them, why try fix somthing if its not broken in the first place .

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ohcetesrod says...
12:12pm Sat 2 Jun 12

paddyash wrote:
what a waste of money yet again, i loved the traditional fairy lights, i miss them, why try fix somthing if its not broken in the first place .
You miss the fairy lights?

Strange world some folk live in if they miss a set of lights that were hardly ever on!

In all the years I have lived in the town, not once did I ever here anyone talk about the 'fairy lights' and how they loved them etc!

I guess some just love jumping on a bandwagon

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Bradley Baker says...
1:07pm Sat 2 Jun 12

i personally love the laser lights and think that they bring this old town into the twentyfirst century. viva the lasers!!!

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ian king says...
1:21pm Sat 2 Jun 12

The Arts council no surprise they are financing much of it. A quango that should never had missed the Axe. If ever there is an example on how to flush Millions of tax payer money down a toilet on nonsense that is it.

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portland rebel says...
2:10pm Sat 2 Jun 12

simon williams stating its not a light show but a piece of art, where do these fools come from, its a a pathetic light show that anyone could have programed, it is certainly not what the people of this area want or deserve, but thats what you get when the council is run by fools.

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weymouthfox says...
4:06pm Sat 2 Jun 12

Mr Williams said: “I don’t know what people were expecting."
Well we were told it was going to be a world class light display.
Three thin beams of green light are pathetic just as most of us expected from Simon Williams and the other council muppets.
And all this talk about the loudspeaker system- nothing heard my end of the seafront, by the Pier Bandstand.

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siratb says...
5:20pm Sat 2 Jun 12

Moan moan moan....Weymouth people can't seem to handle Change...."oh my god, the roads are awful, the lights are awful, our hotels are empty, bring back the old fairy lights, with all their missing bulbs too, I wish we were more like Blackpool".
.
Thank god things do change. We need more change in Weymouth to get away from this Bucket and Spade Pikie town and bring some visitors in who have money which can be spent in the town and improve the local economy.
.
Perhaps Hilton should be invited in to bulldoze the pavilion and build a Hilton Weymouth? Then we can knock down some of these god awful, tacky, crappy guesthouses.
.
Anyone who wants to move from Weymouth to Blackpool is more than welcome, wish you'd just get on with it....
.
Bye...

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bedpans says...
7:26pm Sat 2 Jun 12

Bradley Baker wrote:
i personally love the laser lights and think that they bring this old town into the twentyfirst century. viva the lasers!!!
Well Bradley Baker, I suggest you've escaped from your asylum, and somehow managed to get yourself internet access, whilst on the run. I hope your carer is reunited with you soon!!

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Desk24 says...
5:59am Sun 3 Jun 12

The fish will be able to see them, so they might grow bigger.

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portlandresident says...
10:47am Sun 3 Jun 12

"Former Weymouth resident Pauline Stevens, of Tennessee, had flown from the US to see the laser launch."
-
I doubt that very much!

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Marcusontherock says...
12:53pm Sun 3 Jun 12

In the name of art... like those pathetic Littlemoor Lollipops? The columns holding the lights look like the wreckage from the steel structures after 9/11, they're all painted different colours as if the council were using up the last couple of buckets of paint in store. BRING BACK THE **** FAIRY LIGHTS! After years of enraging road works, building projects, 'art' projects and then calling Hotelliers scruffy after damaging the trade that would normally be used to maintain buildings... I think we desperately need a new local government and some people with common sense!

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ohcetesrod says...
2:47pm Sun 3 Jun 12

So you want multi-coloured fairy lights that were hardly ever on, but you don't like multi-coloured columns that will always be on?

I am still struggling to work out who use to praise the fairy lights when we had them.

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AlienPlanet says...
9:14pm Sun 3 Jun 12

siratb wrote:
Moan moan moan....Weymouth people can't seem to handle Change...."oh my god, the roads are awful, the lights are awful, our hotels are empty, bring back the old fairy lights, with all their missing bulbs too, I wish we were more like Blackpool".
.
Thank god things do change. We need more change in Weymouth to get away from this Bucket and Spade Pikie town and bring some visitors in who have money which can be spent in the town and improve the local economy.
.
Perhaps Hilton should be invited in to bulldoze the pavilion and build a Hilton Weymouth? Then we can knock down some of these god awful, tacky, crappy guesthouses.
.
Anyone who wants to move from Weymouth to Blackpool is more than welcome, wish you'd just get on with it....
.
Bye...
A Hilton hotel? Do you think that will improve Weymouth? Anyone needing a lesson in using lights should at least look at towns like Blackpool, it may not be the most elegant of places, but it attracts over 10 million a year. That's over 10 times more than Weymouth by my reckoning. You are like our Councillors, need a more positive outlook.

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ian king says...
1:45pm Mon 4 Jun 12

"Positive thinking" Yeah, it was that woolly nonsense that created this sort of fail in the first place as it does nearly ever time big sums of money are wasted. The Arts council seriously needs axing.

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Africaboy says...
1:49pm Mon 4 Jun 12

Ive see better effects from a nomad smoking camel dung

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bobby1966 says...
4:19pm Mon 4 Jun 12

i remeber reading a while back during the elections that the elected wanted to make weymouth what weymouth people want lol just think about this, the olympics are suppose to be the great saviour and this council has proved it will be at any cost. 400k spent on those stick things,500k spent on lasers ,intelligent lights which are not great , now if i remember right the cost of fixing the harbour wall was a fraction of this some time back just after olympics was announced but was ignored they said condor bring in weymouth 7 million a year well they will be gone for a year by the time they come back, so at the minute we are just under 8 million down is 2 weeks olympics going to bring in 8 million just to break even ?

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markw5 says...
6:54pm Mon 4 Jun 12

As usual the 'artists' tell all of us what we have to appreciate. The 'Kings Clothes' comes to mind. The council as frightened to say that they are a waste of money and of very little interest to anyone. Of course you HAVE to be an artist to appreciate them. The masses enjoyed the coloured lights but the 'artists' will appreciate green lasers. 'Art' is being forced upon us.

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AndyCooke says...
2:14pm Tue 5 Jun 12

I checked the lights out from a few different points along the seafront on Saturday and Sunday night. Maybe people were expecting something different but I thought they looked amazing ...

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Be_Happy says...
6:02am Wed 6 Jun 12

you obviously don't get out much then andy.
I too checked them out over the weekend. They suffer from too much light contamination from the sea front. They would be good in a darker environment or on a misty night, but as they are they are not up to much. My children were barely interested. I know its your job to up weymouth andy, but sometimes you do fight a losing battle. How is resort doing this year?

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WeymouthMAN11 says...
8:12am Wed 6 Jun 12

One word PANTS. The only time they will look any good is in the rain/mist/fog, oh yeah that will be most of the summer then!

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markerpen says...
3:49pm Wed 6 Jun 12

??? Simon Williams said "I dont know what people were expecting"

Does this sound strange to you?

The Council are spending public money on something and the public dont know what to expect....???

If the council spends public money they should do a better job in making sure people do know what they are getting..at the moment the statement simply demonstrates mismanagement...In my opinion.

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yetti says...
4:45pm Wed 6 Jun 12

Everyone in Weymouth used to love the coloured lights and still would. To give the lame excuse about the cost of replacing a few bulbs is idiotic. To erect such eyesores as the dreadful laser towers is madness. Surely the dear oild Esplanade lights could be put back up and creer everyone , rather than upsetting everyone ? The Council have now wasted about £20,000,000 on removing the roundabouts and putting up the wretched traffic lights that no one wanted. Why not now spend a tiny fraction on brightening up the remaining roundabouts and putting back the coloured lights ?
Tony Wraight

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yetti says...
8:14am Thu 7 Jun 12

Weymouth used to be a lovely happy place where one could walk the streets safely, and enjoy the old fashioned strings of coloured lights reflecting on to the waves of the bay whilst walking peacefully along the Esplanade, or the lovely view of the bay from the Ridgway when we all used to enjoy, now gone forever. Look at the changes now- people encouraged to drink more with bars spreading on to the pavements in every direction. Wretched eyesore wooden cafe structures, and stupid laser towers, plus a completely out of place observation tower ereced on an unsafe pier completely ruining the look of the bay. Hopefully that will fall down by itself or the company running it will go bankrupt when they realise how few people will spend money to use it.
The so called 'intelligent' traffic lights simply cause endless traffic jams. What a total mess the Council have made of the dear old Weymouth we used to enjoy.
Saddened, Tony Wraight

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ohcetesrod says...
10:44am Thu 7 Jun 12

yetti wrote:
Weymouth used to be a lovely happy place where one could walk the streets safely, and enjoy the old fashioned strings of coloured lights reflecting on to the waves of the bay whilst walking peacefully along the Esplanade, or the lovely view of the bay from the Ridgway when we all used to enjoy, now gone forever. Look at the changes now- people encouraged to drink more with bars spreading on to the pavements in every direction. Wretched eyesore wooden cafe structures, and stupid laser towers, plus a completely out of place observation tower ereced on an unsafe pier completely ruining the look of the bay. Hopefully that will fall down by itself or the company running it will go bankrupt when they realise how few people will spend money to use it.
The so called 'intelligent' traffic lights simply cause endless traffic jams. What a total mess the Council have made of the dear old Weymouth we used to enjoy.
Saddened, Tony Wraight
So you enjoyed the fairy lights that were only on a few weeks of the year. Or are you one of many who seem to think they were on all year round?

How do you know the pier is unsafe?

What structural engineering surverys have you seen?

Also, are you able to back your claims up that only a few people will spend money to use it?

Those wretched eyesore wooden cafes. Well that's what you think. Not all of us do.

As for the traffic lights. Yes, bring back the roundabouts.

Like you, I loved to sit there when other selfish car drivers blocked the entrances and exits. Oh how I long for the day to sit on Swannery Bridge waiting a fortnight to get the Esplanade.

Contrast to this bank holiday when it took just minutes. Now that spoilt my day.

Then on to the Ridgeway views. They were great, agree there.

Now though if I want to see those wonderful views of our town I park the car at Broadmayne for ten minutes, have a butchers then drive back into town.

And this is still quicker than the old way of crawling on Dorchester Road.

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yetti says...
7:38am Fri 8 Jun 12

Most interesting that you can see Weymouth from Broadmayne.. but pleased you agree that the Ridgeway views were fantastic- greatly enhanced by the magical fairy lights when they were switched on. yes, I knew exactly when they were switched on, and they were especially appealing at Christmas time. They used to greatly enhance the look of the Vitorian Esplanade. It is very sad to see them replaced by wrertched modern laser towers which are totally out of place there.
Only place I can now see a very distant view of Weymouth from a car approaching the town now is from the top of Coombe Valley Road, or take a long walk to where the old Ridgeway road used to be..
Time will tell just how many people pay to visit the' eyesore' observation tower when the Olympics are over..How ofen will YOU or local residents use it, after your initial visit ?
It will be really interesting to see how well the' intelligent' traffic lights speeds up Weymouth traffic this summer.. The Council surely know the answer already and have their own solution- to simply BAN cars from the centre of Weymouth during the Olympics !

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ohcetesrod says...
8:59am Fri 8 Jun 12

Maybe not Broadmayne, but where the turning used to be at the top of Ridgeway to head Broadmayne.

Lots of contradicting comments on the fairy lights/lasers.

There are those who says how can the lasers attract visitors to view in the winter, but then you say you enjoyed them at Christmas.

As for the viewing tower. I am sure a company as successful as Merlin have done enough homework (they do run the Spinnaker Towers, London Eye)

I am more than sure that they expect the majority of business to come from tourists.

Local hotels/b&b's beach huts and sea-front gift shops will make their main chunk of money from the same source.

If you think the laser columns being out of place, what do you make of Cash Generators, Christopher Robin and all the other businesses on the seafront.

Hardly Georgian.

What about Alexandra Gardens?

Is that part of the Georgian character?

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yetti says...
9:24am Fri 8 Jun 12

I totally agree that Weymouth town centre is certainly not what it was, and the laser colomns and the dreadful observation tower are just a tiny part of the eyesores there now- Alexandra Gardens and the lovely rose arch gardens by the bowling green used to be tranquil places to enjoy, and have been totally ruined by fairground rides and amusement machines. The town centre is in serious decline, and the number of empty or boarded up shops prove it. It is also a dangerous place to venture after dark, and the vast number of public houses there just encourage people to drink more and cause enen more trouble.

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ohcetesrod says...
10:00am Fri 8 Jun 12

yetti wrote:
I totally agree that Weymouth town centre is certainly not what it was, and the laser colomns and the dreadful observation tower are just a tiny part of the eyesores there now- Alexandra Gardens and the lovely rose arch gardens by the bowling green used to be tranquil places to enjoy, and have been totally ruined by fairground rides and amusement machines. The town centre is in serious decline, and the number of empty or boarded up shops prove it. It is also a dangerous place to venture after dark, and the vast number of public houses there just encourage people to drink more and cause enen more trouble.
Good job they got rid of those fairy lights then.

Wouldn't want you trekking out at 5.00pm Christmas day in the dark looking at those part lit bulbs.

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yetti says...
11:15am Fri 8 Jun 12

I and obviously a great many other Weymouth residents and visitors alike were greatly upset by the removal of the inoffensive and beautiful strings of lights. I referred to a peaceful time at Christmas many years ago when Weymouth was a peaceful and happy place, where one could happily walk along the seafront at any time. I most certainly would not walk anywhere near the Esplanade or in the town centre after dark today, as I would feel unsafe without a police escort.

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ohcetesrod says...
12:34pm Fri 8 Jun 12

If so many are 'greatly upset', why so few signed the petition to bring them back?

https://epetitions.d
orsetforyou.com/00,e
petition,10768,694,0
0.htm

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staceathome says...
6:24pm Fri 8 Jun 12

ok i liked the fairy lights why cant we have both and be totally different i think the weymouth people are all annoyed at the moment because all the changes taking place is for the olympics i am waiting for next season to see if all these changes still make a difference i doubt it very much !

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Desk24 says...
7:34pm Fri 8 Jun 12

French girls like lazer shows, might bring in toursit revenue.

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Crimbo says...
9:23pm Fri 8 Jun 12

The laser light will totally bugger up the Bass fishing along the beach after dark. It was one of the few things that Weymouth was good for and now ever that has gone :-(

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